The African Calendar and Cultural Festivals.pdf - Kara.co.za

1. Introduction
Every human family has a philosophy and history of its origins and art of being. The
Calendar of a people records and articulates these essential elements of a people’s past,
identity, culture and traditions. African people inscribed the essential elements of their
intangible cultural heritage, indegeneous knowledge systems and calendar in Zodiacs, of
Meroe, Dendera, Great Zimbabwe and Maphungubwe etc. These Zodiacs contain a
spiritual philosophy, and cosmology on which the African Calendar is based.
An understanding of the African Calendar requires knowledge of the African spiritual
philosophy of origins and cosmology which underlie African cosmography. This
monogram deals first and foremost, with these elements.
2. The African Philosophy of Origins
At the beginning there was nothingness or non-being. The First Cause begot itself out of
this nothingness and came to be known as the self-begotten One or ultimate principle of
being. This Being manifested itself as a triune principle made out of Mind (male),
Thought (female), and Word (offspring of the two). This triune principle took the form
of Absolute Light that existed before the birth of the universe(s). The principle of oneness
or unity underlying all existence is, therefore, a triune principle of light known as the One
or the Good.
There are ten principles which emanated from the One and took the form of a spiral, ten
concentric circles or a python biting its tail. These symbols represent the Universal
virgin mother at the centre of the galaxy or in the region of the Milky Way.
The Universal Virgin Mother gave birth to the spiritual father, mother and child
symbolised by the three stars of the Orion belt. These stars are three in One and One in
Three and are also conceived as the spiritual father. The stars Sirius A and B that
emanated from the stars of the Orion belt represents the Cosmic mother and child. This
Cosmic family is also symbolised by the Solar ( ) emblem. This emblem represents
the Bull of Heaven and the four gods who guard the four quarters of the universe. The
Bull of Heaven and the cosmic spirit that emanates from it are represented by a wheel of
light which makes out the nerve centre of the universe. This wheel of light unfolded
itself into the great and little universe.
The Wheel of Light
Fig. A
ISBN NO: 978-1-920264-17
By Prof. Mathole Motshekga
Fig. B
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